Mommy Dearest
by Rosie2009
Summary: Maleficent has finally grown. Just not quite in the way that everyone expected. Familial feels and some fluff between Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos.


"Get up. I say, get up! You sorry little excuse for an Auradonian!" a voice rang out, drawing her from her sleep. Mal's blood ran cold as she immediately knew who was speaking to her. She could recognize that shrill, irritating, cold tone anywhere.

Mal turned over quickly in her bed, anxiously searching for the source of the noise. However, to her complete and utter shock, her mother's terrarium had not been knocked from its place nearby her bedside and there was no evidence that her mother was anywhere in the room. In fact, her grumpy little lizard face was staring at her from her spot on her tiny throne Mal had placed.

Mal breathed out carefully, glancing over at Evie who was currently lying peacefully in her own bed.

She let out a calming breath. It was all in her head. Maybe she was just dreaming and she thought she had heard her mother's voice.

But it had seemed so real…

"Are you quite done looking around like some bumbling idiot?" Mal's head jerked back to face the lizard. She had moved from her spot on the throne and was now leaning against the glass nearest to Mal.

"A-Are you talking to me?" Mal questioned, feeling a little ridiculous speaking to a lizard that had never vocalized anything since she had turned it into the very reptile it was.

"Who else would be talking to? Sleeping Beauty Wannabe over there?" Maleficent asked, gesturing at Evie with her narrow head.

Mal's mouth fell open in pure shock.

"Holy guacamole, you're talking to me," Mal spoke, halfway to herself. Maleficent rolled her eyes and groaned, bumping her head against the glass in pure frustration.

"How many times do I have to tell you this? Yes! I. Am. Talking. To. You! Can. You. Understand. What. I'm. Saying?!" Mal blankly stared at her for a moment before shaking her head, totally freaking out.

"I've finally done it. I've finally went insane. I just thought I had gone cuckoo when me and Evie switched bodies, but now it's really happened," Mal told herself, holding her head in her hands.

"Oh, yes. That was a rather glorious bit of trouble you managed to get the both of you into. My favorite part was when you were so deliciously jealous of Evie and Ben. That _was_ magnificently humorous," the little lizard cackled wickedly, her face contorted into an evil grin.

"Ooh, boy. What am I going to tell everybody?" Mal wondered aloud. Her eyes grew wide as she suddenly realized that she wasn't the only person in the room besides the lizard. "But in the meantime, what am I going to tell Evie?"

"Well, don't look now, but it appears that you're going to need to figure that out sooner than later. The blueberry is awakening." Mal turned to the other bed, panicked as she glanced back in her mother's direction. Sometimes, she truly cursed the fact that Evie was a light sleeper.

"Mal, what's going on? Who're you talking to?" Evie questioned groggily, slowly rising in her bed and holding herself up with her hands as her barely cracked open eyes attempted to make sense of her surroundings.

Mal flashed her a wide smile that was bordering on the grin of a maniac.

"Nothing, nothing. I'm just giving myself a pep-talk."

"Did you have another nightmare?" Evie immediately began looking more aware and she threw her legs over the side of the bed in a gesture to rise up. Mal mentally slapped herself for using a pep-talk as an excuse.

"No, I was just giving myself a pep-talk because I'm really dreading school today." Evie eyed her strangely upon that statement and Mal couldn't help but let her grin drop a bit as she wondered what she was missing in her slight altercation of the truth.

"Mal, it's Saturday. And it's our first week of Summer break," the bluenette slowly told her, rising from her bed and approaching Mal's with a sympathetic, loving expression on her face. Mal's eyes widened slightly and she looked back at the lizard in the terrarium.

Maleficent simply rolled her eyes and arose on her hind legs.

Mal's head spun back around at the sudden touch on her shoulder. Evie had sat down beside her and was currently resting her hand on the slightly younger girl's shoulder.

"You don't have to tell me about the nightmare. I just want you to know that I'm here for you, though, in case you do want to talk," Evie explained, her voice gentle.

"Oh, gag. You're killing me with all the sister feels. When I was young, my allies didn't get all mushy gushy. They just _punched_ me in the shoulder. It's like three months of therapy, really," Maleficent suddenly announced.

Mal winced. Evie jumped in shock and she looked behind her, trying to figure out where the voice came from.

"Great. This again. The voice is coming from right here. In this clear glass cage where you have to poo in a corner to avoid stepping in your own feces." Evie looked over at the terrarium and Mal was sure the taller girl was going to scream.

Mal grabbed Evie's shoulders in her hands, trying to regain Evie's attention.

The bluenette looked back at Mal.

"Evie, don't panic, okay? I woke up this morning, and Mother was talking to me in lizard form. I thought I went crazy, but I think this is just part of her growing process."

"Boohoo! I can finally talk again and this moron looks like she's going to have a breakdown. I'm the greatest thing that could've happened to you two. Heck, I'm the greatest thing that could've happened to the whole school!" Evie's eyes went absurdly wide and Mal could hear the beginnings of a scream in her throat.

So the purple-haired girl dove forward with a hand and covered the bluenette's mouth to the best of her abilities. Evie's mouth was large, after all.

"Evie, I told you before. It's okay," Evie nodded slowly, but her eyes still had a wild glint to them. "The lizard talks now," Mal explained, despite her mother's sudden outcry of protest. Evie nodded again, a bit calmer. "I'm going to take my hand away. When I do, don't scream, okay?" Evie, with one last glance in Maleficent's direction, nodded. Mal slowly removed her hand.

"Are we through with all the drama now? I can talk. This surely calls for a party, not some sort of theatrical emotional ballad."

"It surely calls for something," Mal murmured under her breath, flashing a small grin at Evie. Evie shakily smiled back, her mirth greatly dampened by her shock at Maleficent's newfound abilities.

Evie, Mal, and the lizard fell into an awkward silence after that. After all, what does one say to one's mother that has been turned to a lizard and has only recently gained the ability to speak after several months of silence?

And besides that, Mal really didn't know how to speak to her mother in ordinary conversation. Her mother was all about cruel treatment and ordering her around.

After a few more moments of quiet, Mal sighed, looking down at the sheets as she contemplated everything that had happened in the span of five minutes.

"So, uh…. How have you been?" Mal finally inquired.

"Well, despite the fact that you don't clean my cage nearly enough and I hate how you've decorated it, I suppose I've been alright," Maleficent replied in her usual snippy manner. Evie huffed in slight laughter at Mal's expense.

"I told you that you should've decorated it differently," Evie nudged her good-naturedly. Mal grunted in response and bumped Evie's shoulder with a bit more force than Evie had exerted against Mal's.

"Oh, have mercy on my soul! Mal's style is much better than those monstrosities you create on a regular basis." Mal smugly grinned at Evie as the bluenette's eyes widened comically. She took it gracefully, though, and quickly recovered, rolling her eyes at the other girl.

"They're practically abominations to the body. Definitely going with Mal's sense of decorating. However poor it may be," Maleficent murmured, throwing a glance of disgust at the tiny refrigerator.

"Well, avoiding any more questions about decorating preferences, are you feeling any more love?" Mal couldn't help but question a bit hopefully. So far, her mother hadn't been quite as nasty and brutal as she could've been, so she was hoping that maybe the lizard had started feeling a bit warmer towards people.

"Uh, no? Why would I love when hate and fear are so much more effective? And besides that, why do _you_ care about the fact that I'm unloving?" Maleficent asked accusingly. Mal groaned quietly and resisted the urge to facepalm. Same old mother. And Mal had actually dared to hope that she might have been changed internally since her external transformation.

"Just checking to see how much longer I'd have to clean your stinking tank," Mal snapped back in return, and couldn't help but feel a little odd after backtalking the one woman that had _firmly_ instilled a lack of backtalking.

But to her great surprise, Maleficent simply chuckled at her comment.

"It's good to see that you haven't _completely_ fallen to the level of these Auradonian freaks and you still have some of ol' Mama's sarcasm," Maleficent told her, a strange tone in her voice. Mal just huffed in response, but she couldn't help but feel a bit better about her mother's mental state. It would be a long road, but she might could recover from her evil upbringing.

"Anyways, I thought it'd be worth mentioning that I have pretty much heard everything that you two have said since I've been a lizard. Which is pretty embarrassing for you, I'm sure," Maleficent suddenly brought up.

Welp, that hope was dashed.

Mal stiffened against her will, thinking of all those times that she had spoken badly of or frustratedly about her mother in that very room when she thought Evie was her only audience. She felt Evie's thumb rubbing gentle circles on her arm in an attempt to make her feel a little better.

"Unfortunately for the blueberry, I got to hear her entire sob story about her breakup with dwarf boy. It was truly pathetic. Honestly, you can't even keep a dwarf as your boyfriend? Pretty darn pathetic, if I do say so myself."

Evie's fingers immediately froze on Mal's arm. Mal glanced at the slightly older girl and saw the immediate wilt and return of self-doubt that followed that particular jab. It was really a low blow, and it didn't take long before Mal had turned toward her mother with an unmeasured fury aglow in her green eyes.

"Now you just wait a minute! Just because you can talk doesn't automatically give you the right to say whatever comes into your rotten little mind," Mal aggressively protected her sister. Evie gently squeezed Mal's arm, and Mal immediately knew it was an effort to calm the purple-haired girl. But Mal wasn't going to back down from a fight, not if it was to defend a family member's honor.

"Ooh, touchy, are we? Never mind that, though. Maybe I should've brought up your particular difficulties with your eight-legged friend in the bathroom instead," Maleficent mentioned, a wicked grin on her small snout.

Mal internally sighed in relief. At least she had distracted her from any more damaging words about Evie's breakup.

But on the other hand, that particular subject was pretty embarrassing.

"Ma'am, if you don't mind me saying, the spider was at least as big as you in your current form," Evie deferentially explained, and Mal groaned. Honestly, Mal didn't know why Evie insisted on being so respectful to Maleficent. It wasn't like she could get out and attack her for being rude.

"Nonsense, complete nonsense. That thing was only the size of Mal's big toe. Which is not very big. You know, it has always been rather humiliating to tell the other villains that your daughter has the teeniest tiniest feet ever," Maleficent prattled on, getting a faraway look in her eyes as she reminisced.

"Anyways," she seemed to shake herself out of it, "if my daughter were truly worth a thing, she would've squished it quickly and efficiently, reveling in its pain as it died there on the floor. I think these soft little Auradon kids have rubbed off on you, Mal. I have to say, I'm more than a little disappointed," Maleficent scolded. Mal couldn't help but feel the red coals of burning hot rage in her chest being stoked none too gently.

"Look, I've about had enough of you picking on me and Evie!"

"Squirt, I'm still your mother and you have no authority to sass me," Maleficent replied and Mal infuriatedly noted the smug little grin she was currently sporting.

"Sometimes I wish you weren't my mother!"

"Well, you know, it's funny. Almost every day I wish that you weren't my child and that I didn't give birth to a failure!" Maleficent shot back and Mal almost physically felt the impact of that blow. As much as she resented the fact, she did love her mother and wanted to make her proud. She just wished her mother had better, more honorable goals for her to achieve.

"Okay… I think this conversation is over now," Evie interrupted the both of them suddenly in her usual peacemaking manner and proceeded to drag Mal out of the room.

"Oh, it isn't over 'til the fat lady sings!" Mal tore away from Evie and surged forward toward her mother's tank.

"What do you think you're doing?" Maleficent demanded. Mal didn't respond and simply settled for grabbing the terrarium and putting it in the closet nearby.

"You can't do this, I'm your mother! Don't you close that door, Maleficent Bertha! Do you hear?! Don't close the-" Mal efficiently cut her off by slamming the door as hard as she could. She then turned to Evie with a groan.

"Do you think that'll shut her up for a while?" Mal questioned, completely exasperated with the entire situation. Evie nervously glanced between Mal and the closet door.

"I don't know… Hopefully so," Evie replied, her voice a bit hushed as she finally settled for staring at the door in awe.

"Gosh, why did she have to start talking?" Mal wondered. "And why now?" Mal collapsed onto her bed with a sigh, burying her face into the comforting coolness of her pillow. Evie ambled over and laid down next to her.

"Maybe it's for the best that she's started talking." Mal immediately raised up and looked at her with an unamused expression.

"Hear me out," Evie sat up and held out her hands in a placating gesture. Mal lowered her head, but kept her gaze locked onto Evie's. The bluenette reached out and tucked a lock of hair behind Mal's ear in that loving, patient manner that almost eclipsed sisterly and bordered on motherly. "Look, it gives you two a chance to bond before she turns into a human again," Evie explained.

"But she's just as hateful as she was before I turned her into a lizard, E."

Evie quieted quickly after that particular statement and Mal took it as a sign that she was trying to think of something positive to say in a totally not positive situation.

"Do you love your mother, Mal?" Evie suddenly questioned, and Mal was totally thrown by the inquiry. Of all the things that could have came out of Evie's mouth, that was quite possibly the absolute strangest and unexpected.

"I… I guess I've never really thought about it." The truth was that she _had_ thought about it. And it was something that she battled with every time it came to her mind. "Do you?" Mal really didn't want to discuss it unless she was confident of Evie's feelings on the matter.

"I think that was the question I asked _you_ specifically," Evie eyed her fondly with an eyebrow raised. "But yes. I love my mother," Evie admitted after a moment. "Even if she is rotten and makes me feel rotten. I'm sure that somewhere deep in her heart she loves me, too."

"Despite it being, y'know, two sizes too small," Evie nonchalantly added. Mal couldn't help but snort, and Evie looked over at her happily, apparently pleased that she could improve Mal's mood at least a little.

"Yeah, I love my mother, I think. I blew up a minute ago because I guess I hoped for her to have changed. I hoped that maybe she had decided that she loved me and had maybe realized that you don't treat people you love like dirt. Suppose I was wrong." Mal lowered her head, a little ashamed of herself for feeling that much for her mother when she was most assuredly angry at her for all of the torture she had to go through on the Isle.

Evie silently moved closer to Mal and hugged her gently. Mal nestled her head under Evie's chin, her favorite place because, much to her frustration sometimes, it was where she felt perfectly safe and enveloped by her sister's embrace. Evie wrapped her arms around Mal's smaller frame, drawing her nearer as she placed a hand on the back of the green-eyed girl's head.

"I understand, M. I do," Mal blinked at the odd feeling of Evie's vocal vibrations against her temple.

The truly sad thing was that Evie really did understand. She understood on such a level that there was almost no need for words. Mal loved Jay and she knew that he struggled, too, but she always could identify on an entirely different level with Carlos and Evie. They both knew what it was like to have a crappy mother.

Evie threaded her fingers through Mal's short tresses, gently tugging and stroking rhythmically, and Mal knew it was one of Evie's many tactics to calm her down. Something about Evie's energy was especially conductive to reassuring anyone, but especially Mal because it was such a familiar and comfortable sensation.

"Evie, I'll never say that I wished I lived with you back when we were on the Isle, but I wish I would've lived with you back when we were on the Isle," Mal told her and she felt Evie's chest quake in a chuckle.

"Okay… Explain a little more?" Evie probed, and Mal could hear the bubble of laughter in her voice.

"Way to make me feel like an idiot, E." Evie shook her head, attempting valiantly to stop her mirth as she patted the back of Mal's head.

"Okay, seriously. You probably need to explain that to me," Evie advised.

"Well, it's just that if I would've lived with you, then we could've had things like this all the time. We could've struggled through it all together," Mal told her. The purple-haired girl could feel Evie melt on the spot from that particular bit of emotion. Evie always was more sentimental than Mal, and she could oftentimes appreciate that since she fed off of Evie's positive emotions. Especially if they were inspired by Mal herself.

"Yeah, but then you would've had to go through all of the things my mother did," Evie wisely pointed out. Mal nodded against the fabric of Evie's shirt.

"That's what I meant by the fact that I'd never say I wished I lived with you back on the Isle." Mal felt Evie move her head in apparent understanding.

After a few moments of comfortable silence, Mal could almost feel a question burning in Evie's mind. It was obvious simply by the fidgeting every once in a while.

So Mal finally chose to indulge her.

"What is it?"

"Nothing! Just…" Mal pulled back and craned her head up to look at the bluenette. "Is your middle name really Bertha?"

…

"Yeah, I love my mother, I think. I blew up a minute ago because I guess I hoped for her to have changed. I hoped that maybe she had decided that she loved me and had maybe realized that you don't treat people you love like dirt. Suppose I was wrong," Maleficent overheard, and she felt a sharp sting in her chest.

It almost took her breath away. What was this feeling? It wasn't sadness, but it was somehow related. But it was more painful than sadness, and all she could think about was what she had said to her daughter in the heat of the moment.

The Mistress of Evil was never sorry for anything. It would ruin her reputation if she was apologetic.

Was she sorry?

Maleficent silently considered this, looking down at her long, untrimmed claws in the shavings below her. She furrowed her brow and settled for listening to the two of them.

"Well, it's just that if I would've lived with you, then we could've had things like this all the time. We could've struggled through it all together," Maleficent heard Mal tell the bluenette.

Maleficent felt a spark of anger upon those words.

Honestly, who did that girl think she was? Maleficent had given her the raising that every self-respecting parent of a villain kid administered. And besides, Mal was hers and was supposed to be loyal to her.

She then heard giggles from Evie and a groan from Mal.

How dare they make fun when Maleficent's dignity was at stake?

Maleficent wanted out. Out of the tank so she could find some way to free herself from this transformation curse. It was then that she noticed that she was resting on a bench in the closet and that the edge of the tank was hanging over the empty air above the floor. She raised a brow and a big giant plan formed in her tiny little mind.

She backed up so that she was pressed against the side of the tank that was firmly grounded on the bench and after a moment, she charged forward as hard as she could, crashing into the other side. To her great pleasure, it moved a bit.

Maleficent repeated the process, and it moved forward incrementally more. She then moved back one more time. She exhaled quietly and then she surged ahead with the most speed that she could possibly manage. She collided into the side of the terrarium and it began to tilt slowly. Maleficent moved into the crack, trying to force it into tilting further.

To her great surprise, it suddenly tilted entirely and fell over, the lid of the tank toppling with it.

Maleficent looked outside of her glass prison and wasted no time hurrying out. She could hear the footsteps on the other side of the door and she knew she had to get out fast if she was going to make her escape from the whole room.

She darted carefully into the corner, tucking herself closely against the wall just as Mal opened the door.

"What?! She knocked the tank over and the lid fell off!"

"M, where is she?" Evie questioned and Maleficent could hear her anxiety. Mal stepped further into the closet and Maleficent eased around the edge of the doorframe and through the crack between the door itself and the floor.

She then, without hesitation, hurried as quickly as she could toward the door.

"Mal! I see her, she's headed out the door!" Evie suddenly screeched, and Maleficent rolled her eyes, cursing the girl's timing.

Mal ran out of the closet, closing in on her quickly. Maleficent padded as quickly as she could and managed to slide under the door just as Mal almost grabbed her tail.

Maleficent zipped through the hall, hearing Evie and Mal still struggling with the door behind.

Now that she was out, she was _never _going back.

…

"Evie, she's out there loose! What are we going to do?!" Mal demanded, and Evie could tell Mal was somewhere between resisting the urge to bang her head against the wall in frustration and crying because she had allowed the menace that was her mother to roam all over Auradon.

"First, we're going to calm down," Evie told her, grabbing her shoulders firmly and guiding her so that she was facing her. "Everything is going to be completely okay."

"This is my mother we're talking about. The Mistress of Evil, remember? I can't believe I did this!" Evie could see Mal was shutting down, and quite frankly, it scared her senseless. Sure, Mal had her moments of weakness, but never when there was a serious issue at hand. Mal was always the one that had her head in the game, despite any inner conflicts.

But Evie knew she had to take control of the situation before Mal completely lost it.

"Hey, hey!" Evie took Mal's face in her hands and Mal froze immediately, her frightened, sorrowful gaze staring into Evie's eyes. Evie exhaled, gathering all of the confidence and love that she could possibly muster to put in her voice. "This is not your fault. Don't blame yourself. This is Maleficent's fault and hers alone."

Mal stared at her silently. Evie kept her hands firmly planted on Mal's face, stroking her cheeks with her thumbs. After a moment, a sense of resolve entered Mal's expression and her eyes hardened a bit in that familiar look of contemplation and plotting.

"We need to get the boys," Mal spoke, and Evie gently released Mal's head from her careful hold.

"Okay. Should we tell Ben and Fairy Godmother?" Mal paused as she silently considered Evie's question for a moment. Evie could see that she was weighing her options.

"No. No, it wouldn't be a good idea because Ben will freak out and Fairy Godmother will probably be angry with us," Mal told her, and began jogging down the hall. Evie quickly followed, quickly assuming that the two of them were headed for the boys' dorm.

"So, when we get the boys, what are we doing then?"

"All four of us will split up and look for her. If we don't find her, then we'll meet up at our dorm and I'll use my spell book to magically flush her out."

"M, I thought you weren't using your spell book anymore," Evie expressed, keeping her gaze on the back of Mal's head as they both rounded a corner, nearing their target.

"I know, but desperate times call for desperate measures."

"Yeah, or the Fairy Godmother's perfectly legal and allowed magic."

"And this is what separates us as two independent beings," Mal stated with a roll of her eyes as she slowed down and knocked on the boys' door. They waited a moment with absolutely no sound to be heard. Mal glanced over at Evie, raising an eyebrow. Evie shrugged and reached over, knocking on the door again.

"Huh?" Evie finally heard a muffled voice question.

"Are you decent?"

"Yeah, why?" Jay asked, his voice groggy. Mal opened the door without hesitation and the two girls walked in.

"Didn't know if you slept in the nude or something. Boys have no decency among themselves," Mal explained, crossing her arms over her chest as she stood before the two beds on the other side of the room.

"Hey!" Carlos protested, rising slowly and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Mal rolled her eyes and largely ignored his objections.

"I really hate to say it, but she does have a point. In the guy's bathroom, boys don't have individual, isolated stalls to pee in, and so you guys can just… you know… look over and see everything," Evie winced in disgust at the very thought of the arrangement of boys' bathrooms.

Jay opened his mouth to say something, but before he could retort, Mal interrupted the whole conversation.

"Why are we even talking about this?! We have an emergency on our hands," Mal frustratedly proclaimed.

"Um… What?" Carlos questioned, looking considerably more awake as he eyed the purple-haired girl strangely.

"My mother is on the loose."

"In lizard form or human form?" Jay asked, immediately more alert.

"She's still a lizard," Mal quickly informed him. "But now, she's able to talk."

Both of the boys stared at her like she was insane. Jay and Carlos shared a glance and looked back at Mal.

"Dude, I think I'm going back to bed," Carlos told his dog, giving him a scratch as he laid back against the pillow. "I'm obviously exhausted and delirious."

"This is no laughing matter! My mom is out there and able to speak. If word gets back to Fairy Godmother about this, we're toast."

"What are we doing, then?" Jay inquired, getting off of his bed and heading for the clothes in the drawer to grab something to wear.

"Each of us are going to search different areas and look for her. If none of us manage to find her, we meet back at me and Evie's dorm and I'm getting out the spell book," Mal re-explained her plan to Carlos and Jay. Evie looked down at her feet, knowing that it wasn't a good idea to avoid telling Fairy Godmother, but also knowing that they could get into serious trouble for allowing Maleficent to free herself.

"Okay. I'll look around outside," Jay volunteered, chucking pants and a shirt at Carlos and hitting him in the head with it. Evie saw the tension in Mal's shoulders relax a bit and the bluenette knew it had to have been because Jay never said anything about her using the spell book.

"What the- bro?!" Carlos yelped, shaking his head and smoothing his hair down.

"Get your clothes on, Frosted Flake," Jay instructed, and Mal and Evie started for the door.

"I'm going to look through the halls," Mal called out, taking off at a run in the direction in which her and Evie came.

"I'll go for the cafeteria," Evie volunteered, and left before she was able to hear where Carlos was planning to go.

Evie really hoped that Maleficent wasn't too far off. She knew Mal was definitely freaking out. To be honest, she was a little, too. Evie didn't know what she'd do if her mother was roaming through Auradon Prep, free to do anything she wanted.

Evie had faith that between the four of them, they would likely find her, but she couldn't be sure. After all, it was four individuals looking for a tiny lizard on some enormous school grounds. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.

She sighed as she reached the cafeteria door. She opened it carefully, glancing in. To her great chagrin, there were several students already there getting breakfast. Thankfully, it was not too many, though. Most people wanted to go out on Saturday morning to Waffle Hut.

Evie slipped in silently and watched wordlessly as everyone focused on their breakfasts and conversations amongst themselves. Evie very unhappily noted that she needed to look underneath the tables to ensure Maleficent's absence.

She spotted her first table that she could target- Elaina and Hannah's. They were both sitting at the very end of it and so she could look under it without being noticed on the far side of it.

Evie hurried over and kneeled, looking underneath. There was nothing but Hannah's fluffy bunny slippers and Elaina's ice slippers.

"What are you doing?" the redhead asked suddenly, dropping down to look at Evie underneath the table. Evie stared at her in a manner akin to a deer in the headlights.

"Hannah, get back up, I think she's looking for something," Elaina told her cousin in that usual timid manner.

"Yeah, I'm just looking for something I lost. No biggie. It's obviously not here," Evie told the girl under the table with her. She backed up and successfully managed to hit her head on the table. She took in a sharp breath, trying to silently overcome the pain.

"Well, if you need help, let us know," Hannah offered, her bubbly personality shining through brightly.

The bluenette arose and proceeded to check several other tables.

Soon enough, she concluded that Maleficent likely had not selected such a crowded area to hide in. However, the cabinets were a great secluded place to start an evil plot.

Evie then hurried over behind the counter where the food was kept. As soon as she ensured that no one was watching, she bent down and looked through the cabinets.

To her great disappointment, there was no sign of Maleficent in any of them. She arose from her crouched position and hit her head on an open drawer. She involuntarily yelped and the silverware clanked together loudly upon her impact.

Evie hit herself precisely in the same place that she had before and she scrunched her face in pain. That was going to leave a knot for a while. At least it didn't draw blood. That'd be a mess to clean up. Plus, she was rather squeamish about her own blood and would probably faint.

Evie slowly arose from her place on the floor and she groaned. However, she quickly froze as she realized everyone in the room was looking in her direction.

Today was just not her lucky day.

Her eyes widened comically, and she offered them all an awkward little wave and a nervous grin.

"Just… getting breakfast," Evie explained herself, chuckling a bit as she began to ease out of the room carefully. She was sure to grab a banana on her way out to cover up the fact that she was most definitely not searching for a bite to eat.

She needed to find Mal and help her search. The halls were certainly a bigger area to cover than simply the cafeteria.

…

"Jay, man, I don't know where I should look."

"Check the bathrooms. Nobody volunteered to go there," Jay suggested, flashing a smirk at the de Vil behind him.

"Gee, thanks," Carlos groaned, sluggishly throwing the blankets off himself and rubbing his face in an attempt to gain some sort of increased consciousness.

"Have fun with that," Jay pulled on his pants and slipped his feet in a pair of sandals. He stopped to shoot Carlos two finger guns and he rushed out the door, heading for the grounds around the school.

"Wait, what about the girls' bathroom?!" Jay shouted something back, but Carlos couldn't make it out.

So, he begrudgingly drug himself to his feet and pulled on his pants. He kept the shirt he was wearing and he slipped his feet into the comfortable slippers near his bed. Dude jumped from the bed onto the floor, wagging his tail.

"Alright, Dude, let's go search the latrines." Carlos left out the already opened door and shut it behind him upon exiting.

After a few moments, he reached the guys' restroom and went in with only some hesitation. Dude padded silently behind.

Immediately, a horridly pungent smell hit his nostrils, and he resisted the urge to gag. Either someone must have forgotten to flush or someone was still in the bathroom.

He looked in each of the stalls, trying not to study the toilets too closely as he passed through.

Everything was going mostly smoothly. That is, until he reached the last stall. This one wouldn't open and there was apparently someone in it. He backed away from it, and bent down, trying to see around the person.

However, just as he had kneeled, the person came out of the stall, a loud flushing sound going off behind him. To Carlos' dread, it happened to be Chad Charming.

"What in the bibbidi-bobbidi-boo are you doing?" Chad asked, staring at the boy on the floor. Carlos offered an awkward grin, waving and standing up quickly.

"I was seeing if anyone was in there," Carlos explained, chuckling nervously. It was true. He was seeing if anyone was in there. Just not quite the sort of person that he was leading Chad to believe that it was.

"Are you spying on me?" Chad demanded, staring at Carlos and raising an eyebrow.

"No way, man," Carlos quickly saw that the blonde was buying it, and he was cursing Chad's inopportune spurt of suspiciousness.

"Actually, I was trying to find you," Carlos told him, and paused a moment, trying to figure out what he was going to add to the lie.

"Why were _you _trying to find _me_?" Chad questioned, his brow furrowed as he studied the de Vil boy.

"Audrey asked me to find you because she needs you to, uh," Carlos thought for a minute, trying to think of something that would compel Chad to go find Audrey. "She needs you to help her learn to ride a horse."

"I thought she already knew how to do that…" Carlos could see that he was confusing Chad and he quickly took advantage of that fact.

"Apparently not. But now's your time," Carlos dared to put a hand on Chad's shoulder. The blonde looked back at him.

"Now's your time to shine. Show her how princely and gentlemanly you can be by running to her rescue!" Carlos attempted to inspire, patting Chad's shoulder carefully. The blonde puffed up his chest and nodded rushing out the bathroom door.

"I'm coming, Audrey!" Carlos sighed in relief once Chad was out of earshot.

That was probably the weirdest and perhaps the most unpleasant searching he had ever done in his life. He looked down at Dude, and with a shrug, headed for Mal and Evie's dorm so he could wait on everyone.

And also so he could maybe catch a few z's before the other three got back.

…

Jay wandered around outside, the cool, crisp morning air hitting his face in a gentle breeze. So far, in all of the places he had looked, he had not managed to find any trace of a lizard. Much less so a magically enchanted one that just happened to be the Mistress of Evil.

He pulled the collar of his hoodie a bit closer around his neck, trying to gain some sort of warmth from it as he walked about. However, he was quickly drawn from this thought as he spotted a genie lamp on the ground before him.

He looked around questioningly, expecting to see something or someone, because a magical genie lamp sitting in the middle of an outdoor path was certainly strange, not to mention suspicious.

Jay reached down and picked up the lamp, half-expecting someone to snatch it out of his hand. He then hesitantly rubbed it.

In a beautiful, mysterious flourish of purple smoke and bright pink sparkles, a very much ticked off daughter of the Genie appeared. Thankfully for Jay, however, when she apparated, she was facing the opposite direction to him. He considered himself fortunate to not be the first thing she saw upon leaving her lamp.

"Honestly, who thought it was a funny joke to rub the lamp? 'Oh, it's a genie lamp! Let's see if it for realsies works! Holy moly, three wishes!' Gosh, these kinds of things always happen when I'm trying to sleep in," Jordan spoke aloud, completely irritated with the situation. She then turned around to face the person who summoned her. Her eyes widened upon the sight of Jay standing there, looking completely lost.

"Oh, great. The son of the guy who was obsessed with lamps. What do you want?" Jordan asked, and Jay could easily tell that she was in no mood to talk.

"Umm… How did you get outside?" Jay inquired, speaking calmly so that he might not invoke her wrath. Jordan started to speak, but then she quieted and looked around in shock.

"I… I don't know," she replied. After a moment, Jordan suddenly looked somewhat apologetic.

"Sorry for the angry rant a second ago. Earlier, I was summoned from my lamp, and I was half-asleep. No one was there and I thought someone had tried to prank me. I guess I thought it was you," Jordan explained herself.

"It's no problem," Jay replied, his mind racing as he began to get a particularly good idea of how Jordan had managed to find herself outside.

"Well, I'm going back to bed. And hopefully I'll actually stay in my room this time," she told him, taking her lamp from his hands and leaving tiredly.

Jay silently nodded his head in acknowledgement. He resisted the urge to add something to the effect of not telling Ben or the Fairy Godmother about her troubles. He knew that would just make him look shifty.

So, he patiently waited until she disappeared from his line of sight and then he bent down, starting to search through the bushes.

He couldn't help but think that Maleficent must have had something to do with that particular happenstance. But what could possibly have been her aim? Was she trying to take advantage of Jordan's abilities as a genie and force her to work for her? Or was she planning to distract Jay and attempt to draw him back to being evil with a piece of his past?

Whatever her goal may or may not have been, she obviously did not succeed.

Jay pushed through the bushes, and unfortunately didn't manage to find anything of any worth to his purpose of searching. Maleficent had left the lamp and had successfully disappeared without a trace. Jay just hoped that Mal, Evie, and Carlos were having more luck than him at that moment.

…

Mal hurried through the halls, completely exasperated, irritated, and otherwise freaked out. She had already searched all of them once, including the cleaning closets. She couldn't help but feel the need to look through again.

She had to find her mother. It was her responsibility to make sure that she didn't do anything evil. And she had failed.

"M! Holy moly, there you are. Gosh, I thought I'd never find you," Evie heaved, breathing deeply and trying to regain all of the air she had lost.

"Evie! Did you find anything?" Mal asked, stopping mid-run and going over to Evie. To her disappointment, the bluenette shook her head. Mal groaned and waited for Evie to speak.

"No, I didn't find anything… However, I do have a lump on my head that wasn't there before," Evie told her, her voice reflecting exactly how short on breath she was.

"Alright. Enough messing around. Let's go back to our dorm and I'll fire up a spell." After a moment, Evie straightened and started to walk with her back to the dorm that, fortunately for Evie, was not that far away.

They strode through the door and Mal's eyes widened as she spotted the very sight that she least expected to see. Her mother in lizard form was resting on the nightstand nearby her bed, looking completely unamused.

"Mom?!" Mal squeaked, her eyes absurdly wide as she stood there in the doorway. She heard Evie gasp sharply. Mal hurried forward and grabbed the lizard before she could escape, and she opened the closet door, dropping Maleficent inside carefully. She lifted it gently and placed it back upon her nightstand.

"Yes, yes, it's me. What's the big deal? Can't I come back to this glass prison whenever I feel like it?" Maleficent harshly inquired, looking away from Mal.

All of a sudden, Jay arrived and he paused as soon as he was even with the bluenette, staring at Mal and the lizard inside of the tank. He never said a word but the glance he shared with Evie was telling enough of his thoughts.

"Why did you come back?" Mal asked.

"Maybe I missed being waited upon like the queen I am. After all, I don't have to do anything in this tank," Maleficent defied, grumpily staring at something to the side of her.

Mal considered this for a moment before her eyes lit up in knowing and a smirk found itself firmly fixed upon her face. It was in Maleficent's body language. She was not angry, but rather extremely uncomfortable and almost insecure in her actions and gaze.

"You came back because you care about me," Mal told her, immediately interpreting the lizard's motives. Maleficent's eyes went wide and she looked at her daughter.

"No! Of course not! Why would you ever-"

"It sounds like you love her to me," Evie piped up unhelpfully, and Jay nodded his head, too, smiling despite the weirdness of the situation.

"I don't love you! I just want to know what my only daughter is up to, and the best way to do that is having you wait upon me hand and foot," Maleficent insisted. Mal looked back at the other two VKs and rolled her eyes.

"Keep telling yourself that."

Suddenly, an enormous snore erupted to the side of the group and the three jumped in surprise.

They all quietly studied the white-haired boy lounging on Evie's bed, currently nestled in the midst of all of the pillows. After a few moments of silence, they all shared a laugh.

Everything was going to be fine.

**A/N: So I've had this story finished for a little while, but I'm just now releasing it. Sorry about that… I have been kind of in a state of disbelief about the loss of Cameron Boyce, and I thought it was only right that we have time to recuperate for at least a few days. I finally decided to release this today because I thought we all could use a little cheering up. I have another Descendants fanfic that I have finished as well, and I will probably publish it before the day is over. It is primarily fluffy whereas this one was a little bit less than ultimately fluffy. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed it, and I also hope you all are having a wonderful day!**


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